Use the code ASTRO40 for 40% off if you book a face-to-face reading for yourself or a friend in July (I usually do these readings on Google Meets, though I do have a couple of spaces in my schedule for in-person if you’re in Los Angeles)
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/sanchii/equilibrium
License code: CCPXQD7J8NAUPZHY
WELCOME TO JULY 2024
If you mark time starting in January, you’ll feel like we are halfway through the year. But maybe you mark time starting in Spring (during Aries Season) or perhaps you mark a year based on your birthday. Maybe you do it all at once, seeing that you are cycles within cycles. Always remember that how you mark time is entirely up to you. Sure, we’ve all agreed on one calendar for convenience. But you don’t need to measure your life by that calendar. Mark time on your own terms. If thinking “it’s half over” is bumming you out, don’t mark time like that. You choose. Always choose.
That said, I’ve made here a calendar for us to mark time together. July 2024.
Visit STAR EATER to book an consultation or mp4 analysis for July!
40% off Face-to-Face Astrology Consultations July!
Use code ASTRO40 (expires July 31, 2024)
July 1
The last day of Mercury in Cancer. Looking over the most tender and tenacious moments of the past few weeks. What tenderness have you discovered about yourself and others? How do you protect that tenderness with your words? Though Mercury moves on, dare to tend the tender parts with your words and awareness. Mercury in Cancer always teaches us that we are tender, goofy animals.
July 2 - Mercury Enters Leo
Now Mercury enters Leo. Messages from the waves of water are receding and we walk on the beach toward a bonfire. What do you see in the flames? Leo, the fixed fire sign, is a fire we gather around. The fire has a stillness to it. Stand at the flame. What is its message? The quality of ideas is less internal than last month’s Mercury in Cancer. Now the glimmers of light from the external world are the ones messaging you.
Mercury Trine Neptune - Looking into the Fire for inspiration.
The images in the flame flare up and then disappear. What ideas have they given you?
Venus Trine Saturn - The Maturity of Pleasure
Venus is still in Cancer, still tender and internal. There’s a feeling of being connected to your
July 3
Mercury Opposite Pluto, Venus Trine Saturn
Are you Sherlock Holmes, uncovering the truth? Or maybe it is Sherlock who is uncovering something about you. What are the secrets you’re scared of showing? Examination will happen, whether you like it or not. Someone’s digging for truths. It’s a great day to make a more solid commitment to someone or something you love. Use the truth, however tender and strange, to strengthen love, make real a commitment.
July 4
Mars Sextile Saturn
It’s a good time to lift weights and gain strength. It has the energy of “low rep, high weight”. That might be physical for you but it might also have to do with your projects, the things you’re trying to make real.
July 5 - New Moon in Cancer
Giving and receiving nurture in quieter ways. Who is closest to you? Who do you allow to be close to you? Who do you keep out and why? Explore who you can let near your softest parts and, perhaps, the things that you need more space from. It is a day to get quiet, respect your sensitivities and those of others. If you’ve been “pushing through” or hustling too much, this might feel inconvenient. But it is worth it. Your soft humanity is worth it.
Visit STAR EATER to book an consultation or mp4 analysis for July!
40% off Face-to-Face Astrology Consultations July!
Use code ASTRO40 (expires July 31, 2024)
It is the first stab of feelings in the zodiac. I am not going to talk about the overblown motherly and crybaby stereotypes of Cancer here (though I will note that I think a lot of the stereotypes of Cancer come with misogynist undertones). I want to speak of Cancer in its role as the first step of digestion. The matter hits the stomach, the nutrients are sought. Traditionally associated with the stomach, we have the phrase gut feeling which is a deeply appropriate method of navigating the world for a Cancerina person. Cancerian types have a great sensitivity to environment
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Will they land on their feet? What is the ground below? Is it soft? Is there water? Can these figures swim? How ready were these people for this moment? I like to think the one with the crown is a Fool, like---that looks like a jester hat more than a crown. And it's not falling off. Maybe this is a Jester who knows how to do a flip. I like to think the one with the cloak is freaked out but ready for doing an awesome dive. Or they could both be on their way to breaking their necks.
But the tarot tells us that we survive from The Tower. It isn't the last card in the deck. The Major Arcana card that follows it is The Star, a naked and alone figure at peace and connected and letting go under a beautiful sky:
The Star is in nature, at peace. There are no other people, clothing or human constructs in sight. The only thing made by human hands are the water vessels and their contents are being released. This is the card that follows The Tower and it is the freedom of being outside of society and hoping for something bigger than what human hands can build. Knowing that your ambitious human hands have perhaps built your own prison and all it took was jumping off and trusting something larger than yourself. The Star shows the human figure as a part of nature rather than trying to build herself above it.
So what do we get from building a TOWER when we know that human hands build traps and prisons? Well---building a Tower is an exercise in strength building! It's about the muscles you build while building The Tower, not the safety you find within it.
Once you've built a Tower, perhaps it is wise to go within, enjoy it and then go and enjoy your new-built muscles in nature, being a creature again. Maybe being human is about process and cycles. Maybe building a Tower is a game. Nature will always win, always send its lighting bolts and disasters to break down the flimsy human-built structures. Maybe accepting that will allow us to appreciate the muscles and grit we've built while building The Tower. And that's powerful. What if the figures jumping off The Tower were partying and enjoying the heights of their structure and they know it is transient. They're ready for the dive because they are not ignoring their place in nature. They know the real strength of the Tower is the muscles they've built.
I think that's really the lesson.
And the challenging things to ask yourself when you get The Tower card are
- where have I let the muscles from this process atrophy?
- Where have I been results oriented and not appreciated the process?
- Why do I think something has a definitive FINISH instead of understanding that life is process?
I believe that being process-oriented is a wiser way of living than being results oriented. Being process-oriented allows us to be adaptable. Goals are useful as North Stars but it's really about the moment-to-moment living you get to do while you're following that Star. We definitely see that the figure on The Star card isn't actually looking at the sky and the stars. She's in the moment. She's present with her activity. She knows the stars are there, she knows she can follow any one of them and enjoy the land and travels. But she also knows they're just hope. They lift and inspire here but she isn't under the illusion that she can reach and own one. She has already jumped off The Tower and she knows she can't built a structure to heaven. All she can do is enjoy the glow of the Stars whilst appreciating work. And maybe she'll build another Tower, wiser this time about it being process-oriented.
Being obsessed with a result is limiting. It makes us brittle. The real stability is in trusting in the process.
So I think when The Tower comes up, we need to confront where we've been results oriented and break our illusions around that result. Get ready to be flexible. Get ready to jump off and be free of that rigid result. Warm up your muscles to go and experience another round of building and dreaming.
Being alive is a process, we are all a process, not a solid thing. We will always change, always age, and the nature around us will always change and have unpredictable storms. Acknowledging process is a gift. Knowing there will always be storms helps you understand how to live in many kinds of weather. It takes time to learn this. But I think this perspective on the relationship between The Tower and The Star can be a great reminder.
In a reading, you might see the card you pull after the Tower as an idea of what your Tower is made of, what firm ambitions must be deconstructed to gift you with more flexibility. Surrounding cards may also be supports for how you will survive The Fall or The Jump from the rigidity, reminders of how to get more flexible.
Our stories around money, commerce, making a living, finances---can often be very limited. We're given a narrative around money from culture or our families of origin. Those stories are often limited. If someone is lucky, they get to learn the non-emotional rules of money and how the systems work. But a lot of people don't learn that and kind of flounder while slowly learning the rules the hard way. It's hard to wade our way through the weird emotional waters many of us have around money.
If you've never had financial security, there is a hyper-vigilance that impacts your personality. You see people with security and there is an ease they have in the world which doesn't exist for you. Even if you "catch up" financially, the years of being on-edge still exist in the body, still exist in the behavior. And it can be a long adjustment to get to that ease.
When someone has questions about money in their natal chart, I always look at the 2nd and 8th houses. Part of Your Narrative Around Money exists in that axis. The 2nd house asks "What is worth owning? What is mine? What is meant to be mine?" and the 8th house asks "What is ours? What do I share with the world? What do other people share with me?"
The 8th house also has a relationship with death. And inheritance. What will we pass on? What has been passed to us? Which stories and folklores do we inherit about objects, about money, about who we are to give to and who we are to receive from?
I see the 2nd house as "The Story To Tell Myself About How I Will Gain My Own Wealth" and the 8th as "The Story That Collectively Exists That I Must Integrate Into My Own Story".
Resources keep us alive. The 8th House talks about death. So what do we need to share that keeps us from death? What do we need to learn to receive that keeps us from death?
Deeply studying the signs and placements and rulerships of the 2nd and 8th houses will help us understand those stories. What is yours and who do you give it to? What is others' and how do you receive it? What do you own for yourself and what do you own with others? The 8th house teaches us how to keep one another alive, where we have bonds as humans that are keeping us away from passing. Things come in and out---connections with others, living or dead. Inheritance that passes hands. Shared values that we uphold together.
I'm going to be exploring these houses in coming articles. Planet placements in these houses, rulerships, etc. So look out for that. But for now perhaps just look at the rulers of those houses---which signs govern your 2nd and 8th whole sign houses and how does that relate to your story around money, commerce, inheritance, sharing, keeping, giving and receiving.
